Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-03-25
VOLUME XXVII--NUMBER II,
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Regular Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, March II, 1887.
Although the marble halls of the
capitol were deserted by our law-mak-
ers week ago, many of them still
linger in Washington, and will con-
tinue here for months to come. The
Northern Representatives are loath to
leave the mild climate of the capital
at this season of the year, and are al
ways disposed to remain here, Congress
or no Congress, "until," as one of
them remarked, ait thaws out at
home"
The air is still full OF extra session
talk. Democratic members of Con-
gress and others who have means of
knowledge on the subject do not now
believe that the Fiftieth Congress will
he called together soon, but that an
extra session in the early autumn is
an evil that ought to be faced.
The House of Representatives that
was elected in November last, entered
upon its official existence on the 4th
of this month, and its members are
now under pay. They are doing no
service and without organization are
incapable of doing any. 1t is not un-
til they have assembled, elected a
Speaker, and been arranged in COM
mittees, that they can enter upon the
work of legislation. If Congress does
not meet until the usual time in De-
cember, in the light of many prece-
dents little or nothing can be expected
of it until the beginning of next year,
for it is well known that no Congress
has attempted to do any real work un-
til after the holiday recess.
An extra session is always unpopular
and the President is anxious, of course,
to avoid it, but in order that some of
the important legislation to come up
during the next year may be matured
in time, it is thought to be the only al
tentative. Those whose counsel is
frequently sought at the White House
now say that the contemplated extra
session would begin about the first of
October and run along into the regu-
lar session, and that the questions of
revenue and taxation would receive at
tention first.
Another reason why it is deemed
expedient to make the Fiftieth Con-
gress take advantage of extra time is
the fact that the next year will be de-
voted largely to President. making,
Although it seems but yesterday since
Mr.. Cleveland was inaugurated, yet,
only fifteen months from now, will the
National Convention be held to nomi-
nate his successor. The two great
parties in Congress, when they assem-
BILE after the holiday recess, will be
surcharged with politics, and every
movement that is made at either end
of the Capitol will have more or less
reference to candidates and politics
and the issues of the ensuing cam
paign.
Between the friends of the Admins
tration on the one hand, intent on
maintaining its credit and vindicating
its record, and the opponents Of the
Administration on the other, eager to
disparage it in the confidence of the
peOple-between combinations here
and combinations there in the interest
of rival aspirants-the Capitol will par
take far more of the character of an
arena of partisan controversy than of
serious and disinterested labor for the
welfare of the country. Considering
all this, the friends of the Administra-
ton feel that the President would be
entirely justified in promoting the
chances of legislation which the public
interests demand by the call of an ex-
ira session.
President Cleveland's care and in
dustry in reading all bills, great and
small, and examining them personally
before signing his name to them, has
been criticised as an unnecessary as
sumption of labor on the part of the
Chief Executive. 1t is quite certain
Mr.. Cleveland has taken more pains
in this respect than any of his prede-
cessors, and it cannot be said that any
of his assistants ever wrote his sigma
ture to enacted laws. This RESPONSE
bility he never delegated to a member
of his Cabinet even in the case of un-
important bills.
On the 4th of March, 1885, when
Mr.. Arthur and his Cabinet arrived at
the Capitol and entered the Presidents
room where, on the tables in large
piles, lay the bills to which his sigma
ture was to be affixed, one pen for the
President was not enough. Half a
dozen more pens were called for, the
door was locked Cthe Inauguration GER
emonies were then waiting) and in a
remarkably short space of time every
one of the bills had Mr.. Arthur's name
to it. At the State Department where
they can be examined, the signatures
to the bills of that date show variety
of penmanship. Dem.